Congratulations
by NauruAyumi
Summary: OneShot HanaKazu, at the Inn where Tohru and Kyo have been wed. Normal people often assumed she didn't have emotions. She couldn't hold it against them. Kazuma on the other hand... Contagious Concepts pt8


Part Eight- Contagious Concepts- A concept for my each of my favorite Furuba pairings. They take place after the reception of Tohru and Kyo's wedding (they're 22, it took him awhile to get the guts to ask her...). Its a moonlit night and there is something contagious in the air.

I'll be posting them as separate one-shots, because the ratings will change between them.

If you enjoy this one, please read my Kakeru x Komaki fic called 'Conference', my Arisa x Kureno fic called 'Content', Yuki x Machi fic called 'Confident', my Kisa x Hiro fic called 'Confess', my Hatori x May fic called 'Concern', my Akito x Shigure fic called 'Conquer', and my Rin x Haru fic called 'Confront'.

Disclaimer- Furuba isn't mine.

R&R! I'd love to know what you think. Tell me which fic/pairing I should post/write next! No flames please, flames hurt. But kind criticism is appreciated. And this is my interpretation, so if we interpret differently, let's not fight, okay?

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People just assumed she had no emotions just because she didn't show them the way normal people did. It was far too difficult for her; she'd been made to be indifferent by her constant everyday exposure to the emotions of others. Normal people didn't understand that. She didn't hold it against them, grudges were pointless, but it made the people who recognized her feelings all the more special and precious.

She had thought she was the luckiest person in the world to have three people who knew her almost as well as she knew herself. Indeed, Tohru, Arisa, and Megumi were her saviors for a very long time; they were the people she could turn to.

And they always would be.

But things change, as do people, and life just carries us to unprecedented places.

That is to say, she met Kazuma.

She first fell in love with his mind, though they'd barely spoken. His waves were pure and kind and sincere, the kind she rarely felt in her constant bombardment. It was easy for her to believe the world was corrupt as she absorbed waves of jealousy, greed, lust, hate and so many vile things. The dulled her, sanding down her will to make connections with other people. It became difficult for her to see the good within humanity.

Standing near Kazuma was like stepping out of a war-zone and into the calm serenity of a secluded bamboo grove. His convictions were sturdy, his emotions unadulterated and he had a purity about him as if he was an honorable samurai, forgotten by time.

Where other people's waves were shots of rubbing alcohol to her brain, Kazuma's were a slow pouring of well-brewed tea and it made all the distance.

He was an old-fashioned boy and she was a girl sick of the modern world.

She could never fall for someone with emotions that attacked and flashed without discipline like misbehaving children, so a martial artist was perfect for her, capable of controlling his mind and always in search of his inner equilibrium. Yes, a martial artist would do quite nicely.

However, out of all the martial artists in the world it was Kazuma that knew her.

It was Kazuma who heard the inflection in her flat voice.

It was Kazuma who saw the blush on her ears when her face remained pale as he leaned in to steal her first kiss the year after she graduated.

He was steady when she was unsure, but the fact that he knew when she was unsure sometimes took her breath away. She'd never felt so exposed, having lived by the philosophy that if everyone else is exposed, then I must be protected. There was no equality in that, and Kazuma taught her the value of being understood. She adored it. If her eyes were capable of sparkling, it would be Kazuma that would make them do so.

Of course, sometimes it was her who was steady and him who was unsure. Their first night totally alone together, she'd felt something from him that she didn't usually feel. It was a flash of lust, brilliant and flaming, followed by a rush of guilt and shame almost immediately. He was reprimanding himself. Her surprise showed through as she watched him struggle with himself across the room and he noticed her noticing. It was the first time she'd ever seen him that color.

"Why do you feel guilty?" She looked at him softly.

"Because I would take your innocence." His voice broke slightly. She was surprised further. Men weren't supposed to be like that, even the good ones! How strange that he be worried about her innocence, when she herself would give it to him in a heartbeat.

Then again, Kazuma never ceased to surprise her. She bent to place a kiss on his cheek. She remembered feeling his late-night whiskers.

"You feel like a cradle-robber." She brought his arm around her waist. She could feel a more pleasant emotion building in him.

"I'm so much bigger than you."

She shook her head as if disapproving, though his concern was touching.

"I love you." She said it, letting layers of her protective outer shell drop. She felt his nervous but happy feeling pulse as he weighed her words.

His eyes bore into hers and she held her own. If he was going to hold her steady when she couldn't trust herself she would return the favor. It felt like not enough for all he gave her.

Then, his nervousness eased.

"I love you, too." It relieved him to say it.

She smiled his smile, the one no one else knew. She was still working on it, trying to perfect it. Apparently such things came naturally to normal people and Hana accepted that she was not normal. She would get it right someday.

"See? It's okay." She reassured him for the last time that night. His capable hands reached up to stroke her face and he smiled back.

He had such an easy smile that spread across his face like a wave on a beach. Hana loved the beach, and she loved him more.

Anyone but Kazuma, she was sure, could not have given her what he gave her that night. It was amazing to know that the things he felt were as powerful as the things she felt, and they both came at her at once and overwhelmed her until she was crying and soaring at the same time. She could feel their very consciousnesses touching, and it moved her to tears. This was something dynamic and mighty, life-changing.

He asked her to marry him, her old-fashioned boy.

She accepted, his misunderstood little girl.

So, Hanajima Saki became Sohma Saki, though her nickname stuck around. His family was against it, but they didn't have a ceremony besides a few close friends and without too much fuss it was a done deal. No nonsense, no pretense, just the two of them, a very strange pair. But, she was his and he was hers, and Kyo Sohma had a new stepmother. She only teased him about it a little when he visited, until his forehead began to pop veins and Tohru returned with the tea.

She wasn't really cut out for being a wife, it was clear, but for Kazuma she would try. They gave up on cooking rather quickly. She had a penchant for food but no talent in the kitchen and her groom was likely to set off a smoke alarm by walking past the stove. Fortunately, eager karate students were readily available and some of them were rather gifted in the culinary sense. She could clean, though not as well as Tohru (who was more likely to scour their house when she visited than sit and take tea), and she could sew but not well enough to pass any serious inspection. She still tended to wear a lot of black, though she liked to wear the housewife apron and play woman-of-the-house with herself. She was young, and naïve, and not regretting anything.

Especially not Takeshi. Her thunder-baby, born in the worst storm of the year.

She'd been terrified when she found out she was pregnant, but her fear was nothing compared to Kazuma's. They hadn't really been planning on having kids for awhile, and he still harbored worries about cradle-robbing. He'd moped and sulked and worried, barely letting her lift a finger though she felt fine. She'd pleaded, telling him that it would all be alright, trying to reassure him, but he blamed himself. Eventually, he couldn't look at her directly and it hurt. The amount of distress it caused her was shocking, and she found herself shaking, feeling him slipping away from her and back into his guilt.

She took solace, in those short but dark times, in the sounds she could hear of the baby inside of her. It's emotions were basic- hunger, tiredness, warmth, but it was also attached to her. It needed her. She held on to it as Kazuma fought his own demons.

Things were pretty bad for awhile.

Arisa stepped in one day, giving Kazuma a hell of a time for letting Hana erode into such a state of worry and sorrow and fear for her baby and her marriage. At last he took a good long look and saw the pain in her eyes, the small crying voice that no one else could see, and they reconciled. As soon as their son was born any trace of apprehension faded, washed away by the rain. Takeshi won them over almost instantly. He had his mother's eyes and hair, but he was strong and had his father's features. She was delighted that something as wonderful as him could come from her and Kazuma.

Slowly and surely, all the sad memories faded into her life, solved problems, and she set herself into planning an inn ceremony for her best friend.

She enjoyed Tohru's wedding thoroughly, the dignity and simplicity (not to mention the catering) and she sat, reposing with her husband and baby in their room, nearly dozing. She was fairly tired and her feet were sore from her geta sandals.

The moonlight was reflected perfectly in Takeshi's coal-dark eyes as she looked into his face, sitting comfortably nestled in Kazuma's arms. It was one of the few places she truly fit. She was still wearing her primarily black mother-of-the-bride kimono, though her husband had loosened her hair. He liked it down, wavy and exotic and a little wild. His stomach and chest were warm and comfortable and familiar against her back. As he'd always been, from the very beginning.

There had been something oddly final about this wedding, something that she didn't pull from the emotions of the guests. It felt like everyone coming together, converging one last time before leaving to take on the world. And she was the one to give away her Tohru to the son of her husband, to believe in bonds that bend and stretch without shackling.

She opened blinked and realized Kazuma was craning his neck to look into her eyes.

"You're happy aren't you." Her lips twitched upwards. He smiled fully. "I must say, congratulations."

"The same to you, Otou-sama." He was right, as usual.

Only he would know how blissful she felt.

It was Kazuma who looked through her blank face and into her eyes.

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R&R! Hope you enjoyed!


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